Neighborhood Based Bike Cooperatives

Seward Redesign is a nonprofit community development corporation that engages residents, businesses, property owners and partners from the public and private sectors in comprehensive, pro-active housing, commercial and small business development. Sibley Bike Depot is a not-for-profit, community bike shop in the old Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul. The Twin Cities is marked by an active, vibrant community of cyclists; Minneapolis was recently named the #1 city for bike use in the nation. In Seward there remain barriers for immigrants and low-income people to access resources to support bicycle use. Many people lack access to affordable, reliable bicycles as well as support in fixing and maintaining bikes. Harris Grigoropoulos, an Environmental Studies and Studio Art undergraduate student at Macalester College, researched cooperative bike shop models and identified barriers to biking. The results are being used to plan implementation for a local bike cooperative in Seward.